Although it is still too early to gauge the quality of the 2015 harvest in Mosel, it is interesting to get a status report from a prominent estate, in our case Dr Loosen in Bernkastel. Ernst Loosen answers our questions:
Can you give us an indication of how the vines are doing thus far?
Ernst Loosen: “In the Mosel valley, we had budbrake in 2015 from the last days of April until 3rd/4th of May, which is later than the last 10 years. The late spring and a summer that became quite hot and dry caused some problems with the younger vines. Three weeks ago, we got 8 liters of rain (8mm) on the weekend, which was very helpful. Last week it was cooling down and we got another 18 liters of rain (18mm). It came just the right time and helped a little bit against the drought.”
So for the moment are there any similarities with 2003?
Ernst Loosen: “So far it looks like 2003 in terms of heat accumulation, but in 2003 budbrake was 4 weeks earlier….”
If everything goes well, when might the harvest start?
Ernst Loosen: “We expect harvest with Riesling on the Mosel during the last week of September. In 2003 we started 2 weeks earlier!“
